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Detective Erin Lindsay is a former member of the CPD Intelligence Unit. She was partnered with Detective Jay Halstead until he leaves to join the FBI, her partnership and position are taken over by Detective Hailey Upton. She was portrayed by Sophia Bush.

Personality[]

Lindsay has compassion for vulnerable young people as she can relate. She makes one unsuccessful attempt at convincing a 17-year-old prostitute and heroin addict, Nadia, to enter drug rehab and later is successful in helping her make it there, as well as allowing her to live with her, before and getting her a job in the station once she got sober.

She cares greatly for Hank Voight after he helped in bettering her life, after she endured a painful existence with her mother. Erin sees Hank as the father she never had because he raised and supported her. Because of this, she often got caught up in moments with him at work in front of their co-workers. Regardless, she loved him for always believing in her. She extended this to the rest of his family, who slowly accepted her as a honorary member.

Biography[]

Erin was born on April 11th, 1985. Little is known about Lindsay's early childhood, except that her step-dad abused her and her mother was a drug addict. She was close with her half-brother Teddy Courtney who she was separated from sometime later. Unknown to her, Teddy became a victim of a pedophile after being kidnapped by a child trafficking ring.

When she was 15, she was involved in illegal street activity (possibly drugs, fights etc.). Later, she met Detective Hank Voight and he caught her in a bad situation and made her his C.I. to stay out of jail. After a case, he felt sorry for her and took her in along with his wife. Erin was raised by the pair along with their own son, Justin Voight. When she was 16, Voight had her enrolled in the St. Ignatius School for a new start, however, the girls at the school quickly found out about her past. St. Ignatius made a deal with Voight that if Lindsay was in a fight, she would be expelled. Lindsay opted to tolerate the bullying instead of disappointing Voight. Erin slowly accepted Hank and his family as a surrogate family, as they showed her the affection she lacked from her biological "family".

Eventually, she joined the CPD after being inspired by Hank. One of her first weeks of uniform she caught a young boy shoplifting. The boy took it out from his pocket and put it back. She got whatever she was getting and then heard gunshots. She ran outside and saw the boy lying dead on the ground while two men drove off. She still feels guilty about this and tells Kelly Severide about it.

She worked hard and soon earned the rank of Detective.

Season 1[]

She joined the Intelligence Unit, working directly under Hank who became her Sergeant. She had a close working partnership with Jay Halstead that would develop into something more personal later on.

In Stepping Stones,

In Conventions, Erin returns from her trip in New York and while at the airport, she bumps into one of her old classmates who were bullies to her in school. The latter is thoroughly surprised she works as a Detective and asks to see her at the reunion. Wanting to prove herself to the bullies, she asks Halstead to accompany her to her high school reunion. During a case, she becomes determine to arrest a serial killer who nearly killed a teen girl and was able to identify his accomplice as a mastermind. Thanks to help from NYPD SVU detectives, they are able to stop the serial killings and Erin visits the survivor to tell her the good news. However, Erin realizes she's out of place, the two instead go to dinner. There, she opens up about her childhood. It is also determined that Lindsay prefers to keep their relationship purely business because her boss Hank Voight (fatherly figure to Lindsay) doesn't tolerate relationships in the Intelligence Unit. 

In Turn the Light Off, Intelligence raids a brothel and Erin meets a 17-year-old prostitute and heroin addict, Nadia. After interrogating her, Erin starts to feel compassion for her because she could relate to harsh life.

As of 8:30 PM, Erin is held at knife-point by one of the hospital bombers (who previously acted as a bystander) and Intelligence are on the hunt for the hospital bombers. Fortunately, the officers and firefighters are able to disarm him and Erin frees herself and beats him down. After Voight and Alvin get information from the detained man, they look for his partners and one was dead while the other Ted Powell was loose. She watched Halstead and Ruzek enter a building through the roof. There, they also find evidence of a third bomb, likely hidden in a white van near police headquarters and set to go off in half an hour. Intelligence speeds downtown, locating the van - disguised with blue paint - and calls in the bomb squad to disarm it. Meanwhile, the crew spots Powell on a roof nearby awaiting his big moment. Erin and Jay chase him through the building until he heads to the elevator. Voight has Sumner stay to handle the bomb while he and company jump into action, now on a race to detain Powell before the bomb detonates. They end up in a tense shootout on the roof until Voight bursts through and states they will bring him in alive. After Voight shoots Powell in the shoulder and Sumner relays that they dismantled the bomb, Voight slugs a smug Powell in the face for good measure before Jay slaps on the cuffs for the wounded man. Intelligence proceeds to take the bomber away.

In Now Is Always Temporary, Erin needs to find counterfeiters, but she couldn’t. So she leans on Nadia - now going through drug withdrawal - and promises to hook her up in exchange for more info. Nadia's foggy memory leads to the arrest of a group of goons that got paid to hit the second guy - except Lindsay and her team prove that whoever ordered the hit paid them in fake dough. With this knowledge, the goons give up Glen Ward, a notorious counterfeiter who recently purchased some real estate under another name. Voight rallies the crew for a night raid and, sure enough, Ward's got a working counterfeit facility under wraps. But he won't go down without a fight. Gunfire from both sides lights up the place before the squad apprehends Ward and secures mountains of cash. Once the case is done, Erin drives Nadia to score some heroin, except now that Nadia's sober, Lindsay reminds her she has a choice - there's a clinic across the street. Without receiving an answer, Lindsay leaves Nadia to her own devices and, just a couple blocks away, with Nadia in the rearview mirror, Lindsay holds back tears.

During Different Mistakes, she tried unsuccessfully to get Nadia to go to rehab. At the end, Nadia calls to apologize and Erin realizes she is going off to score. Erin begs her not to but Nadia hangs up. In the season 1 finale, Lindsay has successfully helped Nadia with her drug addiction and currently helping her find a job. Nadia moves in with Lindsay and eventually becomes the administrative assistant for Intelligence Unit. Lindsay helps motivate Nadia to become a Chicago Police Officer.

Season 2[]

During A Little Devil Complex, Erin meets up with her mother and although she doesn’t want to be there her mother tells her that she has some information. Bunny shows her a glove covered in blood believing a person has murdered someone in her new husband’s truck renting company.

In Erin's Mom, Lindsay decides to take the information to Hank who has his reserves about this but decides to look into it. Surely enough her mother's tip proves to be credible as it is revealed the suspect is an armed robber who is kidnapped a family of a woman who was forced to get the money for them. She later meet with her mother and thanks her for leading her to an actual case. However she starts to lose faith and her mother when it is revealed that she knew the robbers but had no part in their deeds. It later turns out Bunny was aware of the reward but needed it to settle a debt to a pimp. At the end, Lindsay spots Hank paying off the debt her mother owed to the pimp. She subsequently contacts him to thank him for what he did.

In The Number of Rats, Nadia is kidnapped, tortured, raped, and killed by Dr. Greg Yates and Lindsay takes her death extremely hard, blaming herself and taking responsibility for "getting her killed." (It would not be until one year later when she would avenge Nadia by, after he had broken out of prison solely to torment her, killing Yates in Chicago, out of self-defense.) The guilt proved too much to bear so she started unraveling. She hooked up with an old friend and did drugs and drank in excess, causing her to be late for work. In the season 2 finale, she resigned from the Intelligence Unit in order to get some space at her mother's discretion.

Season 3[]

As seen in Life is Fluid, Erin's life kept spiraling downward, with Voight having given up on her and her mother taking advantage of her situation. Jay met Lindsay at some point and they part ways angrily, with Jay telling her to "tell" the real Lindsay that she made a bad call if she ever sees her again. But when Jay is kidnapped, Olinsky calls her and she comes back to get Jay out of the kidnapper's hand. Voight accepts it, albeit begrudgingly. After saving Jay, Voight gives Lindsay two conditions: She has to live with him and do weekly drug tests, and she has to cut off all ties with her mother, Bunny.

In Actual Physical Violence, Bunny tries to call her a lot, but Lindsay does not answer. However, when they finally meet, Bunny tries to convince her that Hank is making her do this, but Lindsay tells her that it's her own decision. As a result, Bunny gets even by filing a complaint that gets a drug lord out of prison.

During Debts of the Past, Erin confronts her mother on this, as her actions put Voight and his family in danger but the latter feigns guilt about putting Beckett away and Erin curses her on her way out. Luckily, the unit apprehend Beckett for new crimes and put him away permanently.

As of Climbing Into Bed, Erin asks Jay if he has a couch guy because Voight is letting her move back into her apartment. Jay and Erin hook up and finally get back together.

In Knocked The Family Right Out, Erin visits a girl named Tawny Darrens who was allegedly attacked in a robbery. However, her team discover Tawney is actually part of the robbery crew who hold her hostage and one member tries raping her. Fortunately, Erin is saved when Jay arrived and shot the man. Afterwards, Tawny is arrested and Erin confronts her about letting the rapes go on but Tawny responds by spitting in her face, so Lindsay gives her a well-deserved punch to the face, cursing her after.

During If We Were Normal, Lindsay comes up with a strategy to catch psychological rapist, she has Voight apprehend him and bring him to the silos where she and his "wife" Madison await. She holds Madison back when Drew protest his innocence, by telling Madison the cops are trying to break them apart until Alvin arrives with Ruby Baker who nearly attacks Drew for her rape and abduction but is held back. Lindsay gets through to Madison by telling that her real name is Jamie and that her family misses her and Drew was manipulating her. She tells her that she knows she is not evil like him and they need her help in saving another girl that was taken. Breaking down, she proceeds to tell them what they need to know, and they go to the house to rescue the other girl.

During Start Digging, Erin is horrified when Justin is killed and Hank since everyone out to find [[Kevin Bingham|the killer[[. Deducing what Hank might do after the killer's house is revealed to be empty. Erin tracks Hank down to the Silos where she finds him threatening the killer. She pleads with him not to do it since Justin wouldn’t want him to ask Kevin begs her to save him. Conflicted as to whether to aid the killer or to let Hank get justice for his son, Erin simply removes herself from the area by leaving.

Season 4[]

In 300,000 Likes, Erin and the unit have to deal with the case of a rich boy who is suspected of being responsible for several rapes and murders, as well as a witness being murdered before testifying. Lindsay takes a personal dislike towards the man after finding his attitude to be snobbish and obnoxious. Lindsay and Jay interview the man, not surprisingly Jay takes a dislike towards him too. Lindsay also overhears that Antonio will be retiring to work with Peter Stone as an investigator for the attorney office. After the man is exposed for his crime, Lindsay visits him at the jail to gloat before watching him be taken away.

During Don't Bury This Case, Lindsay and Hank are forced to arrest Kelly Severide after he is suspected of being involved in a vehicular homicide. Lindsay is conflicted when Kelly tells her he doesn’t remember being involved in the accident but if he was to let him rot as punishment. However, further investigation shows the unit that Kelly was the victim of a car jacking organization and was mistaken as the culprit. They bring down the organization and find the real culprit as well as his partner of the Homicide. Lindsay then visits Kelly after he is released and he promises to get his act together as he very well could’ve done it if he keeps up his drinking.

In Don't Read the News, she met an ex-convict named Jimmy Sanguinetti, who she was told was her birth father, who was out of Leavenworth 10 years prior and had his own family. Jay was able to pick up some DNA from him in You Wish and discovered he wasn't the father.

In Last Minute Resistance, Erin went undercover with Kim in order to take down those responsible for the rape of the latter's sister.

In Army of One, Lindsay committed brutality on a suspect in order to get the location of a boy he kidnapped. Though Hailey tries to stop her, she ignores it and continues until the suspect confesses but Chief Lugo witnessed it and has her and Hailey stay behind. Despite her efforts, the boy had died.

During Fork in the Road, Lindsay's actions caused her to get snared into a losing battle with Internal Affairs. As a result, Voight appoints an old acquaintance to recruit her instead into a narcotics unit based in New York City; she begrudgingly accepts, and parts tearfully with Voight before leaving Chicago.

On Chicago Fire[]

During a blackout, Lindsay visits Firehouse 51 to warn the firefighters about possible unsavory characters in or around the firehouse. She is first on the scene when a thug named Vince Keeler attempts to attack a young man at the firehouse (revenge for Keeler's niece being hit by a car driven by the young man's drunk brother); Lieutenant Kelly Severide forces Keeler outside and is given a death threat. Shortly after the blackout, Keeler and his gang kidnap Severide's sister Katie in retaliation. Lindsay is a go-between for updates on the case. Severide beats information about Katie's whereabouts out of one of Keeler's accomplices. This results in a successful reunion between Severide and Katie. Lindsay talks to Katie in the hospital and it is implied that Keeler beat and raped her. Keeler manages to use a higher up in the CPD to be released. This angers both Severide and Otis, Katie's boyfriend. The two begin to plot revenge with two other firefighters, Capp and Clarke. Katie leaves Chicago for a fresh start and to be away from Keeler. Keeler is discovered to be missing, with the keys to his Cadillac in the ignition. Lindsay immediately suspects both Severide and Otis. She runs an investigation of the two but comes up empty. It is implied that Severide and Katie's father, Benny, had murdered Keeler. Voight and Lindsay immediately remove Severide and Otis as suspects and bury the case.

Memorable Quotes[]

“I was born into bad news, and can’t seem to get away from it.”

Notes and Trivia[]

  • For the time she was in Intelligence, she carried a Glock 19.
  • Her radio code was 5021 Lincoln.
  • Her Badge number was 61317.
  • Her height is mentioned to be 5'5, 5'6, and 5'7, but her actual height 5'4[1].
  • The only police car she has driven was a Chrysler 300C.
    • Her personal car is a black Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT-8.

Gallery[]

Appearances[]

Season 1
Stepping Stone Wrong Side of the Bars Chin Check Now Is Always Temporary Thirty Balloons
Conventions The Price We Pay Different Mistakes A Material Witness At Least It's Justice
Turn the Light Off 8:30 PM My Way The Docks A Beautiful Friendship
Season 2
Call It Macaroni Get My Cigarettes The Weigh Station Chicken, Dynamite, Chainsaw An Honest Woman
Prison Ball They'll Have to Go Through Me Assignment of the Year Called in Dead Shouldn't Have Been Alone
We Don't Work Together Anymore Disco Bob A Little Devil Complex Erin's Mom What Do You Do
What Puts You On That Ledge Say Her Real Name Get Back to Even The Three Gs The Number of Rats
There's My Girl Push the Pain Away Born Into Bad News
Season 3
Life Is Fluid Natural Born Storyteller Actual Physical Violence Debts of the Past Climbing Into Bed
You Never Know Who's Who A Dead Kid, a Notebook and a Lot of Maybes Forget My Name Never Forget I Love You Now I'm God
Knocked the Family Right Out Looking Out For Stateville Hit Me The Song of Gregory Williams Yates A Night Owl
The Cases That Need to Be Solved Forty-Caliber Bread Crumb Kasual with a K If We Were Normal In a Duffel Bag
Justice She's Got Us Start Digging
Season 4
The Silos Made a Wrong Turn All Cylinders Firing Big Friends, Big Enemies A War Zone
Some Friend 300,000 Likes A Shot Heard Around the World Don't Bury This Case Don't Read the News
You Wish Sanctuary I Remember Her Now Seven Indictments Favor, Affection, Malice or Ill-Will
Emotional Proximity Remember the Devil Little Bit of Light Last Minute Resistance Grasping for Salvation
Fagin Army of One Fork in the Road

Chicago Fire[]

Chicago Med[]

Chicago Justice[]

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